The enemy of me is the enemy of God

Article 186 of Islamic Penal Code states that when any group or organization attempts armed confrontation against the Islamic Republic of Iran, so long as its leadership is intact, all its members and supporters who are aware of the organization’s positions and take steps to further its objectives, are “enemies of God,” even if they are not involved in its military branch. Article 190 of Islamic Penal Code states that there are four possible punishments for “war against God or corruption on earth”: death, death by hanging; amputation of the right hand and then the left foot; or permanent internal exile. Article 191 of the Islamic Penal Code gives the judge the discretion to choose the punishment.

I trust that’s clear enough. Iran is the same thing as God, so anyone who opposes Iran by joining some armed group becomes an enemy of God, and therefore Iran gets to terminate such opposition here on planet earth by sending that opponent to…somewhere else. You can’t say fairer than that, can you.

Even though I believe in evolution, there are times when I think some groups of people, like the ruling class in Iran, have not evolved in millions of years.

Don’t romanticize evolution. It does not have a direction. Implying that evolution brings civilization is misguided at best. We do not kill people based on religion in the US not because of any evolutionary difference, but because of cultural differences.

Not that I’m one of those who will say that their practices should be allowed, or that it is culturally intolerant to say so. But the culture differences have nothing significant to do with evolution.

Well, culture does evolve, but of course Paul is right to say that evolution has no direction or purpose. Like everything else, culture is constrained by the environment in which it finds itself. If we were all sculptors and nobody produced food, well, that wouldn’t last long. But the mental or emotional constraints on culture are much more interesting than that.

The ruling class in Iran are beasts, yes. In a way it’s positive that they are so open about their ruthlessness. It brings closer the day when people will see religion as a form of social control. Just a shame that there have to be so many victims in the meantime.

Note that Queen’s College Oxford has just created a scholarship in the name of Neda Soltan. The Iranian Embassy is predictably furious. Good, anything that sticks in the craw of those brutal bastards is to be applauded. Perhaps we should bomb Tehran with DVDs of the Ladyboys of Bangkok?